arescentral / antares

A tactical space combat game

Antares

• Download Antares 0.9.1 for Mac OS X 10.7+_.
• Install Antares 0.9.1 for Ubuntu_.
• Download the Antares 0.9.1 sources_.

Antares is based on Ares, a game developed by Nathan Lamont, and released for the classic Mac OS in 1998. After a re-release by Ambrosia Software and a major expansion which added support for plug-ins, the game fell into obscurity, as it was not ported to Mac OS X. However, in 2008, the source code was released. Antares is a port of that code to modern systems.

There are several issues that need to be fixed before the 1.0 release; the issue tracker contains a list of them. After they are fixed, Antares will have feature parity with Ares in all respects except for multiplayer. The timeline for multiplayer is less certain.

Building Antares

The long version is here. The short version is:

$ ./configure
$ make

You may need to install some extra software first; the configure script will give you instructions if so.

Running Antares

The short version is:

$ make run

A launcher will appear, letting you choose a plugin to play. By default, the original Ares scenario will be listed. There aren’t any video settings; just resize or maximize the window and Antares will adapt to the new size.

On Linux, you can also install the game:

$ sudo make install

This will install the game to /usr/local/games/antares, by default.

On Mac, you can put the game anywhere you’d like:

$ mv out/cur/Antares.app /Applications

Links

• Antares website
  • Contributing to Antares
• Announcements mailing list
• Development mailing list
• Ares Forums

antares's Issues

Mission debriefing automatically disappears

Original issue 25 created by sfiera on 2009-12-07T13:43:49.000Z:

What steps will reproduce the problem?

1. Start a non-tutorial level.
2. Win the level.

What is the expected output? What do you see instead?

The mission debriefing should remain on-screen until explicitly dismissed
by the player with the mouse or keyboard. Right now, it will automatically
disappear after a short delay.

Briefing points clipped at edge of map

Original issue 18 created by sfiera on 2009-11-14T00:45:58.000Z:

What steps will reproduce the problem?

1. Start "Chapter 5 - Out of the Frying Pan..."
2. Go to the second briefing point for Aeneas Alpha.

What is the expected output? What do you see instead?

The box displaying this briefing point should extend beyond the map of the level, but instead, it is
clipped at the edge. The whole thing should be displayed.

Uncontrolled Ship Spinning in Shoplifter 1

Original issue 28 created by searsandrew on 2010-02-28T08:10:53.000Z:

What steps will reproduce the problem?

1. Engage in combat during the mission Shoplifter 1.
2. Make a left or right hand turn while in combat.

What is the expected output? What do you see instead?
Turning right or left should begin turning and stop when button is released. Except, ship
continues to spin in either a clockwise or counter-clockwise direction. Forward thrust can still be
applied, however, the ship simply rotates while thrust is applied.
Sometimes the vessel will discontinue spinning uncontrollably if the opposite direction is
selected - however this does not usually work.

What version of the product are you using? On what operating system?
v. 0.1.1 on Mac OSX 10.6.2

Please provide any additional information below.
Unknown - I am unable to make it past this level, as the spinning makes completion of the
mission impossible.

Mission debriefing disappears too easily.

Original issue 34 created by sfiera on 2010-04-01T01:56:29.000Z:

What steps will reproduce the problem?

1. Win a level.
   2a. Press a key immediately as the mission debriefing appears OR
   2b. Hold down a key as the level is completed.

What is the expected output? What do you see instead?

The mission debriefing disappears at first key-press (or at continuance of key-press), without any
chance to see what it said. There should be rules in place that ensure that the player has a chance
to see it, and that it is dismissed when the player really wanted it to be.

Mission debriefing doesn't display typing blocks

Original issue 37 created by sfiera on 2010-09-19T07:27:59.000Z:

What steps will reproduce the problem?

1. Win a level.
2. Watch

What is the expected output? What do you see instead?

As the mission briefing is being typed out, there should be a lightly colored block at all times, indicating where the next character will be typed. This is currently missing.

Winning level twice results in duplicate "select level" entry

Original issue 21 created by sfiera on 2009-11-28T19:02:50.000Z:

What steps will reproduce the problem?

1. Win a level that you already have completed (skipping a tutorial counts).
2. Quit the game.
3. Go to the "select level" screen.

What is the expected output? What do you see instead?

There is an extra entry in the "select level" screen, corresponding to the
level after the one that was completed.

Add support for multiplayer

Original issue 5 created by sfiera on 2009-11-13T20:05:54.000Z:

Multiplayer was supported in Ares, but is not presently supported in
Antares. This is something that should be rectified following the 1.0 release.

Audemedon holograms don't adopt player color

Original issue 3 created by sfiera on 2009-11-13T19:04:22.000Z:

What steps will reproduce the problem?

1. Start a multplayer game where both players are Audemedon.
2. Select an alternate color for the other player.
3. Have the other player use the "HOLOGRAM" weapon of the Aud Cruiser.

What is the expected output? What do you see instead?

The generated hologram will be orange, the default color, instead of
whatever color was selected.

The technique of picking a very different color for your foe, so as to make
it easy to identify holograms, is discussed in some strategy guides.
However, it is a bug, and should be fixed. Since, by definition, both
players must be Audemedon for the bug to occur (meaning they are both
subject to the bug's effects), there should be no meaningful difference in
balance as a result of fixing this.

Help screen doesn't display

Original issue 11 created by sfiera on 2009-11-13T21:16:16.000Z:

What steps will reproduce the problem?

1. Start a game.
2. Hit "F1"

What is the expected output? What do you see instead?

The help screen should display, showing keyboard shortcuts, etc. Instead,
nothing is displayed.

Orientation of level sometimes not random

Original issue 33 created by sfiera on 2010-04-01T01:53:27.000Z:

What steps will reproduce the problem?

1. Start Antares.
2. Begin a level.
3. Restart Antares, and repeat the same actions.

What is the expected output? What do you see instead?

The orientation of the level will be the same the second time as it was the first time. It should be
different (or rather, random).

Turrets target energy pulses

Original issue 38 created by sfiera on 2010-09-20T11:50:20.000Z:

What steps will reproduce the problem?

1. Destroy a ship, releasing its energy.
2. Fire a turret when the energy pulse is closer than any enemy.

What is the expected output? What do you see instead?

The turret will fire at the energy pulse. The way that ships are programmed to pick up energy pulses is for the pulses to be marked "Hated" but to not be shootable. Ships will therefore attempt to ram them (using logic similar to missiles). However, they are also targeted by turrets; this ought to be fixed.

Scaled-up static is squashed horizontally.

Original issue 49 created by sfiera on 2010-11-09T13:29:32.000Z:

What steps will reproduce the problem?

1. Zoom in to 2:1 zoom or 1:1 in a carrier (preferably both).
2. Fly into combat.
3. Get hit.

What is the expected output? What do you see instead?

There are two ways it makes sense to draw scaled up static: either with one pixel of static in correspondence with sprite pixels (that is, scale static up), or in correspondence with world pixels (leave it at screen resolution). What happens right now is that static pixels are drawn as wide as a sprite pixel, but only one world pixel tall, resulting in the static looking squashed horizontally.

Either of the two aforementioned options would be a fix for the problem. My belief is that the latter (draw in world pixels) is correct: this means that static is fractal; zooming in on static only ever yields more static.

Score for kills is calculated incorrectly

Original issue 23 created by sfiera on 2009-12-05T22:56:34.000Z:

What steps will reproduce the problem?

1. Win a level.

What is the expected output? What do you see instead?

Kills are supposed to be calculated as follows:

1. If the player's kills are less than or equal to half par, no points.
2. else if less than par, 0-20 points.
3. else if equal to par, 20 points.
4. else if less than double par, 20-40 points.
5. else 40 points.

This is done correctly by the game, except that within each bracket, points
are awarded inversely proportional to kills. Score should be awarded
proportionally to kills within each bracket.

Controlled ship landing causes undefined behavior

Original issue 22 created by sfiera on 2009-12-05T16:06:00.000Z:

What steps will reproduce the problem?

1. Instruct a transport to land at a planet.
2. Wait until the landing action has started (i.e. after the "whoosh").
3. Take control of the ship.

What is the expected output? What do you see instead?

When the transport finishes the landing sequence, the game crashes. The
game should not permit the player to take control of any ship that has
started its landing sequence.

Antares should auto-update

Original issue 48 created by sfiera on 2010-11-02T02:32:09.000Z:

Antares should auto-update itself upon launching, using a framework such as Sparkle. This is unimportant before version 1.0, but at that point, it would be very desirable.

Keys incorrectly displayed in tutorials

Original issue 31 created by sfiera on 2010-03-08T13:15:56.000Z:

What steps will reproduce the problem?

1. Start one of the tutorial missions.
2. Wait for one of the messages in which you are told to press a key.

What is the expected output? What do you see instead?
The name of the key to be pressed should be displayed. Instead, something
else is (not the key, though it's consistent as to what it displays instead).

System-wide shortcuts not disabled

Original issue 13 created by sfiera on 2009-11-13T21:22:45.000Z:

What steps will reproduce the problem?

1. Press a system-wide shortcut while the game is active, e.g. Cmd-Space.

What is the expected output? What do you see instead?

The global shortcut activates, e.g. Spotlight, instead of the in-game
meaning, e.g. simultaneously firing pulse and special weapons.

Loading progress bar doesn't display

Original issue 12 created by sfiera on 2009-11-13T21:18:42.000Z:

What steps will reproduce the problem?

1. Start a game.

What is the expected output? What do you see instead?

There should be a progress bar, indicating how much of the scenario has
loaded. Instead, nothing has displayed until loading has finished.

Mouse movement disrupts replays

Original issue 2 created by sfiera on 2009-11-13T19:00:32.000Z:

What steps will reproduce the problem?

1. View a replay in the game.
2. As the player is attempting to select a ship, mouse the mouse around.

What is the expected output? What do you see instead?

The player will fail to select the ship. This will result in the replay
falling out of sync with the actual game, and later parts of the replay
will not display correctly.

Mouse isn't hidden

Original issue 17 created by sfiera on 2009-11-13T21:33:59.000Z:

What steps will reproduce the problem?

1. Start a game.

What is the expected output? What do you see instead?

The system cursor should be hidden, and the in-game cursor be visible
instead. Instead, the system cursor remains visible.

Make the editor (Hera)

Original issue 45 created by aurel.bily on 2010-10-24T14:09:37.000Z:

So - is the Hera editor going to be a part of the antares project?

Jerky Flight while in "Zoom to Closest Hostile" in new Release 0.2.1

Original issue 35 created by searsandrew on 2010-04-02T21:27:40.000Z:

What steps will reproduce the problem?

1. Set Zoom level to "Zoom to Closest Hostile"
2. Engage fast enemy ships (like fighters) while in a slower ship.

What is the expected output? What do you see instead?
Smooth movement of ships across the screen, however, background jerks in time with zoom level.
Once you get to the zoom level where the ships are triangles and squares its okay, but closer
combat gets difficult due to jerking.

What version of the product are you using? On what operating system?
Release 0.2.1 on Mac OSX 10.6.2

Par time displayed incorrectly

Original issue 24 created by sfiera on 2009-12-07T13:42:20.000Z:

What steps will reproduce the problem?

1. Start a non-tutorial level.
2. Win the level.

What is the expected output? What do you see instead?

The mission debriefing should display the par time as "mm:ss". Instead, it
is displayed as "mmss".

In addition, if the par time is 0:00, then it should be displayed as "N/A",
although there may not be examples of such missions in the factory
scenario, other than the tutorials, which do not have a mission debriefing.

No sound

Original issue 15 created by sfiera on 2009-11-13T21:30:48.000Z:

What steps will reproduce the problem?
1a. Click on a button in the interface OR
1b. Start a replay.

What is the expected output? What do you see instead?

Sound should play, either as feedback from the interface, or e.g. when
weapons are fired.

Pausing via CAPS causes smearing

Original issue 39 created by sfiera on 2010-09-20T12:41:56.000Z:

What steps will reproduce the problem?

1. Repeatedly pause and unpause the game while the ship is moving.

What is the expected output? What do you see instead?

Stars which were visible at the time of pausing will not be erased. They will smear across the screen until erased by virtue of being occluded by a sprite or a sector line.

Music preferences not really respected

Original issue 42 created by sfiera on 2010-10-12T02:48:16.000Z:

What steps will reproduce the problem?

1. Disable all of the music.
2. Continue the game.
3. Restart the game.

What is the expected output? What do you see instead?
Upon disabling the music, it should stop (it doesn't). Upon restarting the game, it should not play (it starts playing upon reaching the main menu).

Cannot alter key settings

Original issue 6 created by sfiera on 2009-11-13T20:57:15.000Z:

What steps will reproduce the problem?

1. Choose "Options" from the main screen.
2. Choose "Key Settings" from the options screen.

What is the expected output? What do you see instead?

Can't navigate to the "Key Settings" screen at all.

Caps Lock doesn't unpause

Original issue 36 created by mabadge on 2010-04-18T05:06:34.000Z:

What steps will reproduce the problem?

1. Press Caps Lock
2. Press Caps Lock

What is the expected output? What do you see instead?
Pressing Caps Lock twice should unpause the game. It instead stays paused. The only way I have
figured out how to fix it is exit the program.

What version of the product are you using? On what operating system?
0.2.1 on Mac OSX Snow Leopard

Please provide any additional information below.

"Hold Position" triggers arrive action.

Original issue 40 created by sfiera on 2010-09-27T23:36:29.000Z:

What steps will reproduce the problem?

1. Build a transport.
2. Order it to go to a planet.
3. Trigger the special action "Hold Position".

What is the expected output? What do you see instead?

The transport's arrive action will trigger, causing its landing sequence to start. Sound plays, and the transport disappears shortly thereafter. No action should be triggered.

This also happens with engineering pods and assault transports.

Allow selection of screen size

Original issue 19 created by sfiera on 2009-11-14T00:49:35.000Z:

What steps will reproduce the problem?

1. Start the game

What is the expected output? What do you see instead?

The game runs in a 640x480 window. It should be possible to run at higher resolutions: at a
minimum, 800x600 and 1024x768, and potentially others. There are, however, potentially
problems with the idea of running at resolutions above 1024x768, since the left and right
instrument panels are only 768 pixels tall and will probably not scale well.

Mission debriefing screen doesn't work

Original issue 8 created by sfiera on 2009-11-13T21:02:21.000Z:

What steps will reproduce the problem?

1. Start a level.
   2a. Win the level OR
   2b. Lose the level OR
   2c. Skip the level (if it's a tutorial).

What is the expected output? What do you see instead?

The "mission debriefing" screen should be displayed. If the level was
lost, it should show a message explaining what happened. If the level was
won or skipped, it should show congratulations, a rundown of the stats and
score achieved by the player, and par for the level.

Instead, nothing is displayed, and the game proceeds to the next level.

Chapter epilogues do not display

Original issue 9 created by sfiera on 2009-11-13T21:04:27.000Z:

What steps will reproduce the problem?

1. Start a chapter with an epilogue, such as "Chapter 7 - On the Rocks".
2. Win the chapter.

What is the expected output? What do you see instead?

The epilogue text should be displayed in the same manner as is prologue
text. Instead, nothing is displayed, and the game proceeds to the next level.

Cannot alter game options

Original issue 7 created by sfiera on 2009-11-13T20:58:01.000Z:

What steps will reproduce the problem?

1. Choose "Options" from the main screen.

What is the expected output? What do you see instead?

Can't navigate to the "Options" screen at all.

Preferences not saved between invocations of app

Original issue 30 created by sfiera on 2010-03-08T05:44:36.000Z:

What steps will reproduce the problem?

1. Open Antares.app.
2. Change some of the sound or key settings.
3. Close and reopen the app.

What is the expected output? What do you see instead?
The same sound and key settings selected in the previous invocation of the
app should be displayed. Instead, they are reset to the defaults each time
Antares is opened.

Mouse areas wrong for help and play-again screens

Original issue 41 created by sfiera on 2010-10-08T23:14:19.000Z:

What steps will reproduce the problem?

1. Start a game.
2. Press ESC or F1.
3. Click just to the left of one of the buttons, or in the rightmost part of one of the buttons.

What is the expected output? What do you see instead?
The button triggers for areas to the left of the button, but not for the areas that are within the button but far to the right.

Smearing in third tutorial

Original issue 20 created by sfiera on 2009-11-15T09:04:42.000Z:

What steps will reproduce the problem?

1. Play the third tutorial.
2. When told to hold 'SHIFT' to select yourself, do so immediately, without
   dismissing the message or waiting for it to finish displaying.

What is the expected output? What do you see instead?

The current message should disappear as the next appears. Instead, the old
message smears, and remains onscreen until other images wipe it out.

Money bar doesn't display costs properly when large

Original issue 43 created by sfiera on 2010-10-17T19:59:56.000Z:

What steps will reproduce the problem?

1. Start a game.
2. Amass enough money that the "gross money bar" on the left displays at least one tick.
3. Go to the "build" screen in the minicomputer.
4. Hover over something expensive.

What is the expected output? What do you see instead?
The game should display something indicating "yes, you have enough money for this." However, the money bar is displayed as if the gross money bar didn't exist, meaning it could display a red section even when the player has enough money.

Note that the gross money bar should probably indicate something so that the player understands "bar of this bar will be consumed" (one could imagine ships expensive enough that a full tick would be consumed from the gross money bar as well).

No windowed-mode support

Original issue 14 created by sfiera on 2009-11-13T21:25:26.000Z:

What steps will reproduce the problem?

1. Start a game.

What is the expected output? What do you see instead?

It runs in windowed mode. It should be possible to run full-screen.

Mojibake in in-game messages

Original issue 29 created by sfiera on 2010-03-08T05:43:07.000Z:

What steps will reproduce the problem?

1. Start the first tutorial
2. Read the first message

What is the expected output? What do you see instead?
The message should display the word "ship’s", but in place of the right-quote
glyph, a box is displayed. This is a consequence of Antares 0.2.0's
improvements to unicode support clashing with its MacRoman origins.

Mission debriefing corner not filled

Original issue 26 created by sfiera on 2009-12-07T13:45:33.000Z:

What steps will reproduce the problem?

1. Start a non-tutorial level.
2. Win the level.

What is the expected output? What do you see instead?

The lower-right corner of the mission debriefing remains black. It should
be filled in with the same background color as the rest of the "par score"
cell.

Ammunition counters dark on ppc

Original issue 32 created by sfiera on 2010-03-09T03:09:33.000Z:

What steps will reproduce the problem?

1. Start a game on a ppc machine.
2. Switch to a ship with an ammunition-based weapon (e.g. an Ishiman
   Cruiser or HVC, but not a Fighter or Gunship).

What is the expected output? What do you see instead?
There should be ammunition counters on the left, drawn in bright colors.
Instead, they are very dim and hard to read, though still definitely visible.

Money bar doesn't display fractional costs properly

What steps will reproduce the problem?

1. Start a level where HVDs can be built.
2. Go to the minicomputer “build” screen.
3. Amass just enough money that the money bar indicates that an HVD can be afforded.
4. Attempt to build it.

What is the expected output? What do you see instead?

The ship should be built, no questions asked. But, at present, this is not the case for all ships. Some ships (such as HVDs) have fractional costs; the money bar uses the floor of that number (e.g. 32¤) for display, but the actual cost remains the same (e.g. 32.5¤). The money bar should indicate that the ship cannot be afforded for another few seconds.

Collision flashes can persist after quitting game

Original issue 50 created by sfiera on 2010-11-09T13:39:18.000Z:

What steps will reproduce the problem?

1. Start a game.
2. Have something collide with your ship.
3. Pause the game during the resulting flash.
4. Quit the game.

What is the expected output? What do you see instead?

The flash should disappear as soon as the game is paused. Instead, not only does it persist into the play-again screen, it continues to be in effect back in the main menu and screens such as the about and options screens.

No music

Original issue 16 created by sfiera on 2009-11-13T21:31:18.000Z:

What steps will reproduce the problem?

1. Start the game.

What is the expected output? What do you see instead?

Doomtroopers should unite. Instead, they don't.

Cheats don't work

Original issue 47 created by aurel.bily on 2010-10-28T16:51:06.000Z:

What steps will reproduce the problem?

1. Start a game
2. Press Return and type "!!payup"
3. Press Return again
4. Notice that nothing happened

What is the expected output? What do you see instead?
The chat bar should be shown and the cheat should be enabled.

Add support for plugins

Original issue 4 created by sfiera on 2009-11-13T20:05:31.000Z:

Plugins were supported in Ares, but are not presently supported in Antares.
This is something that should be rectified following the 1.0 release.

F1 help doesn't toggle as documented.

Original issue 46 created by aurel.bily on 2010-10-28T16:41:45.000Z:

What steps will reproduce the problem?

1. Start a game.
2. Press F1 to open up the help. It says "F1 - show/hide help"
3. Press F1 again - help doesn't hide.

What is the expected output? What do you see instead?
It should hide after pressing F1 again.

Please provide any additional information below.
Minor thing but still.

Release Antares 1.0

Original issue 1 created by sfiera on 2009-11-13T18:52:04.000Z:

Antares 1.0 should support all features of the original Ares, with two
exceptions: it need not support either plugins or multiplayer. These are
both considered desirable features, but both require significant new code
to implement. It should be possible to get to Antares 1.0 mostly by
repurposing existing code.

Crashes attempting to load non-32-bit pictures

Original issue 27 created by sfiera on 2009-12-07T13:50:29.000Z:

What steps will reproduce the problem?

1. Start the level "Chapter 16 - Hornet's Nest"

What is the expected output? What do you see instead?

The game crashes. This is because the chapter prologue to Hornet's Nest
makes use of the picture "10017 Audemedon Portrait.png". This image is a
24-bit RGB color image, unlike almost all of the others, which are 32-bit
RGBA images. When trying to load it, Antares crashes, since it handles
only 32-bit images.

Another affected image is "10022 human portrait.png", but I don't think it
is used anywhere.

Mission briefing doesn't allow display of ship stats

Original issue 10 created by sfiera on 2009-11-13T21:13:16.000Z:

What steps will reproduce the problem?

1. Start a level with mission briefing (anything but a tutorial).
2. Click and hold on a ship portrait.

What is the expected output? What do you see instead?

Nothing happens. Instead, a window should pop up with various statistics
about the ship.